criminal law

criminal law

Discuss the parties criminal liabilities and possible defences in each scenario
SCENARIO 1:
Rick and Morty decide to burgle a house and sell the items that they steal, so that Rick can use the proceeds to work on time travel. This causes Morty a fair amount of stress – he hates being dragged along on these hair-brained schemes that his grandfather, Rick, comes up with.
Morty is aware that Rick has a gun with him, and although Morty is worried that Rick might use it (Rick has indicated that he will use it if necessary), he really, really hopes that Rick will not use it – in fact, Morty really does not want any weapons used or for anyone to get hurt.
Rick forces the back door open and goes inside the property. Meanwhile, Morty finds an open window that his grandfather had not noticed – just inside the window is a pile of gold jewellery! Morty leans in through the window, with his feet still on the ground outside the house, and takes several items of jewellery and puts them in his pocket.
Beth is inside the house, in the kitchen. When Rick sees her, he thinks that she will raise the alarm for help, so he points the gun at her and shoots her. Beth is seriously injured.
Meanwhile, Morty goes to take a look in the shed to see if there is anything worth stealing. Upon finding the shed is empty, he leaves.
Rick and Morty leave the premises and run up the road, into the subway. Rick sees a policeman in the subway and decides that he wants to fight him. Rick punches the police officer and breaks his nose. Morty would usually not take part in violence, but today he decides to join in, and he kicks the police officer in the shins. The police officer is knocked to the ground, and the pair start to run off. Rick decides at the last minute to return and take the policeman’s wallet from his pocket, before finally fleeing the scene.
Discuss the parties’ criminal liabilities and possible defences
SCENARIO 2:
William, who is a bit of a trouble-maker and rather broke at present, decides to visit Eastworld, which seems like a perfect place to wreak some havoc and – ideally – get away with it! On arrival at Eastworld, William keeps an eye out for people to steal from. He sees Dolores carrying a bag, and decides to try to steal it. He manages to wrestle the bag from her grasp, and runs away with it. He then sees Maeve, who is on her way to work at the saloon. Maeve is carrying a basket, and William grabs at the basket, causing Maeve to drop it, but William runs off without actually managing to get hold of it. Maeve decides not to report this to the police, and continues on her way to the saloon. William then decides to have a spot of lunch, after which he will go to the local saloon to steal some alcohol, and he is prepared to use force to do so if he needs to…..
Meanwhile, Wyatt has been watching William and has decided that he wants to see if he can also benefit from criminality, as his day job does not pay very well. Wyatt plans to burgle a local house – he purchases a notebook and writes #BurglaryGoals on the front of it, and proceeds to make notes about how he plans to burgle the house. He decides that a crowbar is the best way to break into the property that he has chosen, and so he purchases one. However, he rapidly realises that he could make a lot more money from burgling the saloon! So, he discards his plans to burgle the house and instead commences with making plans to burgle the saloon.
The police receive information that he is planning this burglary. On the day of the planned burglary, Wyatt approaches the saloon, wearing sunglasses and carrying what appears to be a heavy object. He walks to within 20 yards of the saloon, and then appears to change his mind and walk away. He does however return about 30 minutes later and approaches the saloon again. Just outside of the saloon, he is arrested and charged with attempted burglary.
While the police were distracted with arresting Wyatt, William entered the saloon and helped himself to the alcohol on the shelves behind the bar in the saloon. He manages to grab 2 bottles of Tuaca, and he runs for the door. Maeve, who has been at work for 30 minutes now, knew that there would be trouble as soon as she saw William in the saloon, so she stayed close to the door to block it if he tried to steal items and escape. With Maeve blocking the door, William decides to push her out of the way so that he can escape with the stolen items, which he successfully does.
Discuss the parties criminal liabilities and possible defences

Scenario 3:
Amy, Benedict, Chloe and Daniel met at University years ago and have been best friends ever since. Just after graduation, Dan inherited a large apartment in the centre of the city and invited the others to move in and ‘flat’ share with him. All four are ambitious career orientated people who enjoy living in the heart of the city and spending time together. They have become as close as family, with no sign that any of them will be moving out of the apartment any time soon.
On the day in question, Dan (who had just got home after performing a difficult surgery) is alone when he is taken captive by a group of armed thugs who have broken into the apartment. They are carrying weapons and make it very clear that his life will be in danger if he does not do as he is told. They record footage of him being beaten and tied up, and then drag him from the apartment and despatch copies of the footage along with their demands to Amy and Chloe.
The demand sent to Amy (a barrister acting for the Crown Prosecution Service) tells her that she had better make sure that key evidence goes missing in her current case and to do whatever it takes to ensure that the defendant is acquitted, or else Dan will be killed. Amy is also told that the kidnappers are monitoring her and as long as she does as she is told and does not go to the authorities, that Dan will be released once the defendant is out of the county.
Obviously distraught, Amy contacts Benedict and Chloe to tell them what has happened. This is when Amy and Benedict find out that Chloe has also received a similar demand from the thugs but has been told that she must access a particular client account at the bank and then electronically move the contents of the account overseas. It transpires that the defendant in Amy’s case and the client at Chloe’s bank are one and the same and the three friends conclude that this is obviously an elaborate escape plan that will permit the defendant to get their hands on the proceeds of their crime and then leave the country.
Because Dan is being held hostage and the threat of violence is very real, Amy and Chloe feel that they have no other choice than to go along with the demands of the criminals and so Amy sets about ‘wrecking’ her case and Chloe ensures that she will be able to transfer the money when she is told to.
So far as his three best friends are concerned, Benedict is a computer geek who writes code and spends lots of time visiting clients and debugging their software, however, he has not been honest with them about his occupation as he actually works for Mi5. As it is going to take several days for the sabotaged court case to run its course, Benedict (who is a particularly good field operative) spends the time tracking down where the thugs are keeping Dan. It proves to be relatively easy as the thugs who kidnapped Dan were not particularly careful, believing themselves to be merely dealing with a barrister, a banker and a computer geek!
Benedict surveils the property where Dan is being kept and is in the process of planning a stealthy rescue when the situation escalates unexpectedly! From his position nearby, Benedict hears banging and shouting and is afraid that Dan’s captors are killing him, so he breaks down the back door and enters the house immediately. It is chaos, but it seems that Dan (who is usually a gentle giant) has managed to free himself and is fighting his way out of his upstairs prison! Two of the kidnappers try to attack Benedict but he manages to evade them and knocks them both out with a baseball bat that he handily found on his way through the house, meanwhile a third kidnapper has pulled a knife on Dan and stabbed him in the shoulder. Dan, fuelled by fear, rage, pain and adrenalin, picks up the guy and throws him out of an upstairs window. Dan races downstairs and joins up with Benedict, who drags Dan out of the house and they run to Benedict’s car and make their escape.
Discuss the parties criminal liabilities and possible defences